Target, Kohl's drop drinking game sales

To play the devils advocate here though...without a drinking game a person wouldn't have the chance to make that decision.

IMO actual established drinking games are silly anyways...I prefer the made up ones.

Tsk... I'm a bit old for drinking games but my favourite was when we would watch a football match and pick two players. For every commentators mention you'd have a drink and two drinks if they scored, three if they got sent off and so on. I remember picking a player who got sent off and it was the talking point of the match- I got well sozzled

I've never bought a drinking game as my imagination works fine

I agree Neet, No one makes anyone do anything, it's called your choice. When people make a decisive decision it's on them, especially with the drinking and driving, It seems they don't learn untill it ends up ruining someone elses family, To You

I am soooooooo sorry!!!

I agree with you. A game doesn't make you drink. A store shouldn't be forced into what they sell. If people object to stores like Target and Kohl's selling them, they should avoid shopping at those stores, then spend their time fighting the real culprits.

But we couldn't possibly think that people might be responsible for their own actions. It's up to groups like this to force their version of morality on society.

I get so tired of stuff like this, especially when it is obviously targeted for adults. Yes, we need to protect the children from many dangers of this world, but as a responsible adult - let me make my own decisions! If I hurt myself, that's my own fault. If I hurt someone else, there are already laws on the books to prosecute that.

As a silly aside, though, when I saw this quote in the article:

"..binge drinking — generally defined as the consumption of at least five drinks in one sitting.."

I realized that I've never actually binge drank, according to that. I always had to get up to get another drink.

I think this is really stupid. Especially since these games have not been linked to anything. Why stop at the games? Target also sells glasses and wall signs with beer logos on them.

I'm with you there!

It doesn't bother me that privately owned stores pulled drinking games. Actually, right before Christmas, a friend of mine got a drinking shot-glass roulette game for $5.00 at Kohl's. - must be why. I agree that we are responsible for ourselves. Some drinking games are fun, but IMO they ALL coerce the players into drinking A LOT. I mean, thats the point of a drinking game, isn't it?

Here's a good drinking game. Its called "Bob." Watch reruns of the old Bob Newhart Show (the one where he's a phyciatrist). Every time you hear the name Bob, you must take a drink.

I agree, this whole thing is stupid. There is nothing wrong with drinking games, as long as you are responsible. I am tired of responsible people losing their rights to do things, because of people who are irresponsible.
Or as it is with my choice of pets. Just because some fool makes a mistake and gets injured, there are people who want to ban the ownership of exotics. Just stupid.

Does this mean that Bob Newhart DVDs should be banned?

I work at Kohl's Corporate Headquarters here in WI. Kohl's got thousands of letters regarding these games. That kind of response regarding a product is going to make a dent, and influence a company's decision-making. Keeping them, and the publicity that would follow for doing so was not worth the possible loss of customers. To be honest, the games weren't huge sellers anyway, so pulling them is not a loss to the company at all whereas a loss of consumers would be.

I don't agree 100% with the whole `it's my choice' argument.

It is, and for those posting here, we are responsible adults who make responsible decisions. Unfortunately, many of those out there are NOT responsible adults, they might have children but they don't look after them properly, they don't even look after themselves properly. Leaving such things down to the discretion of the individual doesn't always work - as you so tragically found out when your daughter died in that accident, Neet.

Responsibility for community is one of the better sides of society. That is why we have laws, rules and regulations. No, you cannot control one's drinking or their decision to drink, but you can regulate what is made available to protect those in our community not capable of protecting themselves.

Going by the arguments here, nothing should be illegal, nothing should be kept from us, because it's all our choice. That's not realistic. Cocaine is illegal because when people become addicted to it, their capacity for decision-making is diminished. We discourage children from smoking, and have age-specific laws regarding smoking, because it's not only hazardous for them, but for the greater environment. And don't tell me kids don't smoke - I started when I was 11, and yes it was my choice, but I wasn't old enough to know any better, I hid it from my parents so they couldn't kick my butt.

It's not enough to say that responsibility lies with the individual. Ultimately, yes of course it does, but without the knowledge of availability provided by retail outlets, advertising and other media, much of those decisions could be altered or prevented. I never knew about Fluff before I saw it in the supermarket. It might not kill me, but it's not good for me, and if it wasn't on the shelf I never would have known about it.

The same holds true with these games. No, they don't force you to drink irresponsibly, but they help you to do so should you choose to, which is in conflict with the obligation of the retailer to not provide items with the potential for harm. A consciousness to provide a safe environment for the people who make up a community is a lot of what makes us civilised - we should be thankful that there are people out there who care enough to try to protect us. It's a civil privilege, that has evolved into a civil right.

I applaud their decision.

I'm not saying that, nor can I discuss Kohl's sales any further. I was simply trying to give you an idea as to why they decided to pull the item from the company perspective.

YES! like watching The Boondock Saints and every time they say F**K you have to drink. I mean thats just priceless!

Well those days are behind me now.
anyways, I think those games are silly, and kids are going to drink anyways. we all know that.

Riiiight. Will you feel that blasé when it's your own 13-year-old? Just because they are `all going to anyway' it doesn't mean we shouldn't try and educate them to the dangers.

While i agree the games are silly- i think a blanket statement such as the one you made is entirely uncalled for and inaccurate. Not every kid drinks....there are plenty of them out there who do not- i don't think blanket statments should be used to describe the actions of an entire age group- it just doesn't fit everyone. The decision to drink is a personal one- it's an individual decision- and since not every individual drinks- i don't think an entire age group should be covered in that blanket statement- it's not right for the ones who choose not to drink.

Sarah, I just can't agree with legislated morality. (I'm getting more and more Libertarian, but that statement does not necessarily include hard-core drugs.) It's bad enough that they have the sin taxes on liquor and cigarettes. Education is absolutely the answer, but taking these games off the shelf isn't going to prevent anyone from binge drinking.

When I was in college, we didn't have any pre-packaged drinking games. We played Red/Black, Drug Dealer, Bullspit (those three were card games), Spinners, Bottle Caps, Quarters (those three were with quarters at a table), Bob the Dog, Fuzzy Duck (both word games), Spanish Bingo, or whatever else we could think of. It didn't take a board game. So should playing cards, quarters, dictionaries, TV shows, movies also be banned because they are used for people to be stupid with? Should we just go back to Prohibition so kids can't be stupid?

It's already illegal for minors to drink. It was also incredibly easy for us college students, mostly under age, to buy alcohol in my small college town. Perhaps those laws should be enforced better rather than taking legal choices from adults because some stodgy know-it-all group thinks they know better than the rest of society because it doesn't fit into their morality.

That's all true and I do agree. But like you say - if it's so easy to have drinking games etc, then why is there a need to go putting them on the shelves of department stores as well? I think I probably should have modified my response to say that I have no problem with games like that being sold in certain stores, but I think Target, where teenagers are a huge part of their demographic, is inappropriate.

Having said that, though - you can probably buy cigarettes there, and I know in the States you can buy liquor from supermarkets (you can't here) so it's just splitting hairs to say drinking games are inappropriate items.

I still think that `legislated morality' as you put it (nice one - summed up in two words what I tried to say in 100!) is not entirely a bad idea. But it's hard to know where to draw the line.

It's funny that you mentioned that. The US is a bit odd about its laws when it comes to where and when you can buy alcohol. I live in Ohio, so you have to go to a "state" store to buy alcohol. Sometimes they are linked to grocery stores sometimes they aren't. Also, in my state you can't buy wine or beer before 1pm on a Sunday. The reasoning, I should be in church. I don't know about anyone else but you can't buy cigarettes in the Targets in Ohio. I don't know if that's a corporate policy, or simply an Ohio thing.

Mostly, alcohol and cigarettes are controlled by the state. They independently tax and regulate where and when it is sold. Heck, it can even get as specific as a city or a town. I went to high school in a dry town that had one of the highest DUI rates in the state!

I would just like to say that I have never played a drinking game, I mean it, never. I hardly drank when I was underage, at least never enough to get drunk, in fact at 29 years of age I can count on one hand how many times I've been drunk. I have a shot glass tic-tac-toe game that my boss gave my work group for Christmas and it has not "made" me get drunk. I agree wit Heidi in that legislated morality is not the way to go, in this time of sue-happy people, we need to start taking responsibilities for our actions, and stop blaming "the man" for everything.

Given the new knowledge, I don't blame the company for pulling the games. However, I do think that all of those people who wrote the letters have stupid reasons for thinking the way they do.

If people wanna use the argument that kids can get these things if sold in Target or Kohl's than other stores that kids can go into should stop selling adult themed products. Has anyone been to Spencer's in most malls. Inside these stores are tons of kids and teens. Inside these stores they have whole sections dedicated to ex related games and novelties such edible undies, lotions, lots of other things meant for adults. And if I remember most of those place do not card the people to find out if they are 18 or not (someone correct me if I am wrong). Why don't we make them stop selling them because kids might buy them.

Back to the OP, I did play drinking games in college. Here's the deal, we wouldn't have run out to Target to buy one because it would have cut into our drinking money.

Now, if I have one of my nieces or nephews come up to me and ask about it, I'll be honest and tell them what I did. I will also tell them that it's not worth their time. I would get really sick and that took all the fun out of that time of my life. Honestly, underage drinking is a problem because it's about feeling like a rebel. I drank wayyyy more alcohol when I was 20 than I did when I was 22. Once I hit the magic number drinking got old. Now we have bottles of wine and beer that sit in our apartment for weeks, if not months.

I don't have a great answer on how to stop this problem, but I think I came up with a good solution in college. We always had one sober friend at any party we went to. It was that person's job to make sure that everyone got home safe, and that everyone was accounted for during the night.

Of course not.

I never said that the games should be banned either. There is a big difference between banning something and privately owned stores like Target and Kohls deciding to discontinue a product. I did express my opinion that the games are intended to get the players drunk. If store owners don't want to sell games like that it is their perogative.

Stores like Spencer's will still carry them. I don't understand why its a problem.

I agree.... You are responsible for you. No where on those games does it say you must use beer or whatever. You could just as easily use kool-aid or pop.